Posts Tagged With: reward

Peter ends this letter to a group of suffering Christians with great consolation. Line after line offers hope and promise of comfort and reward. An altered frame of mind maybe helps us with our expectations and desires but today’s comfort brings solace to the heart.

1. Peter begins by reminding his recipients that their reward for standing up under pressure is an eternally durable one.

And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that won’t wither away. (5:4)

The toned, flexible, capable bodies of our youth age and wither. Crowd approval fades. Financial stability and market shares lessen with time. But there is a glorious reward coming to those who stay true to the faith even in the face of persecution that cannot be taken away and will not lessen in value.

2. Suffering is also easier to face when we are convinced that God is one on our side.

Throw all your care upon him, because he cares about you. (5:7)

It can be easy to give into the belief that God is not on our side, that He has had a hand in our suffering or at least has failed to stop it. Peter reminds his readers that God cares intimately about them and their problems. They can fall to their knees and pour out their prayers to him. No matter the emotion — fear, resentment, anger, hurt — God wants to hear their heart’s cry.

3. No one wishes misfortune on others, but suffering is easier to face when you know you are not alone.

Resist him [the Devil], staying resolute in your faith, and knowing that other family members in the rest of the world are facing identical sufferings. (5:9)

Persecution is the worst when you think you are the only one being subject to it. You begin to think there is something particularly wrong with you. Or the injustice of the situation seems all the worse. Peter reminds them that what they are going through is not unique. There are many others suffering the same fate. Strangely, there is comfort in numbers.

4. Paul’s last word of all about suffering in this letter is that better days are coming.

Then, after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who called you in the Messiah Jesus to the glory of his new age, will himself put you in good order, and will establish and strengthen you and set you on firm foundations. (5:10)

When you are in the midst of hard times it is so easy to become myopic and think this is all that life is. Every day will be filled with pain. Each new person will treat you as harshly as the others. Every phone call will be bad news. Each new turn is a bad turn. Peter reminds them (and us) that God gets the last word, and for those who in Christ, that last word is one of blessing, strength and restoration.

What is the one point about suffering you most needed to hear this week?

For many of us, this is a very familiar chapter. Maybe you grew up like me calling this the “Hall of Fame of Faith.” With its definition of faith,

What then is faith? It is what gives assurance to our hopes; it is what gives us conviction about things we can’t see. (11:1)

and its many examples of faith, this chapter is certainly that. But hopefully now with an increased appreciation for the context of Hebrews, we can see that these are all examples of a certain kind of faith.

If you are a Jew (now or then), the people mentioned in this chapter are heroes. It is their kind of faith you would want to have. That is exactly what the Hebrew author is hoping his audience will realize.

Faith is defined here as pressing forward with confidence into a rewarding but unseen future. This definition comes in four parts:

Pressing forward: Faithful people don’t sit still in a comfortable place. And they certainly don’t go backward, reverting to a comfortable past.

Abel proceeded to offer what he understood to be the right kind of sacrifice

Actively “seek” after God like Enoch

Noah actually built his preposterous Ark

Abraham picked up his family and moved to an unseen land

Sarah and Abraham did what was necessary to bear a family

Abraham actually took Isaac to the mountain to sacrifice

Both Isaac and Jacob promised his descendants land that his family did not yet possess

Joseph saw the coming slavery but could also see the Exodus

Moses preferred to suffer than enjoy the luxury of a pagan king’s palace

Moses kept God ever before him, even as he was chased by the murderous Pharaoh

The Israelites carried out their ridiculous battle plan at Jericho

Rahab betrayed her own people by welcoming the spies “in peace”

Confidence: Faithful people are sure of better things to come.

Like Enoch, faithful people “must believe that he really does exist”

Noah “took seriously” the warning of a flood

Abraham “looked ahead” with expectation

Sarah considered God “trustworthy”

Abraham figured God could raise Isaac from the dead

Jacob was so sure of the promise that he “worshipped” God for it ahead of time

Joseph made plans to be buried in a land they did not have

Moses’ parents were not afraid of Pharaoh

Moses “reckoned” the promise of God was better than the “pleasures of sin”

Rewarding: There is every reason in place to have this sort of faith.

Abel was vindicated by God.

Enoch was taken directly to be with God

Noah and his family were saved from drowning

Abraham’s descendants inherited Canaan

Sarah conceived a child though barren

Abraham did not lose Isaac

Moses was rescued from death as a baby

Moses led the Israelites across the Red Sea on dry ground

The walls of Jericho fell

Rahab was spared death at Jericho

Unseen: The unseen nature of faith is punctuated in this chapter by the many uses of “seeing” language — “seen” (11:3, 7, 13); “visible” (11:3); “bore witness” (11:4); “see” (11:5, 10, 14); “find” (11:5); “seek” (11:6); “not knowing where he was going” (11:8); “looking ahead” (11:10, 26); “looking” (11:14); “hidden” (11:23); “saw” (11:23); “invisible” (11:27); and “eyes” (11:27). This would have been especially poignant to the Hebrew Christians who seem to be missing the tangible nature of their past Judaism. Their heroes always pursued the unseen as well.

Maybe the astonishing thing in this chapter is how it ends:

All these people gained a reputation for their faith; but they didn’t receive the promise. (11:39)

Now, the Hebrew Christians have a chance to receive something their own heroes longed for but were never given: a true inheritance in God’s perfect city (11:10, 13-16). What a privilege! It is for them to simply press on as the “people of faith” (10:39) even if it stretches them past the tangible.